


Tomorrow

by Melisenda



Category: Downton Abbey
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-04-28 17:05:57
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5098487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melisenda/pseuds/Melisenda





	Tomorrow

He woke up with a feeling of numbness throughout his entire body. "Damn! I must have fallen asleep completely dressed! Now to iron this damn livery will take a life. Bloody ugly fabric, thick and stiff... " The room was shrouded in complete darkness. It must have been the middle of the night still.

The man tried to get up but immediately lost the orientation: he had the feeling not to be lying on the bed, but as if suspended. Suspended in darkness and emptiness. Perhaps he was still asleep and was dreaming ...

"Thomas!"

"Lieutenant Courtney? Are you here, sir?"

"Did you recognize my voice? After all these years? "

Thomas blushed, and blushed even more realizing that he was blushing. "I ... Excuse me sir"

"Edward. It is Edward  now..."

"So I'm really still dreaming. I hoped so much to do it, do you know? To see you  again at least in my dreams. Although see again is not right. It’s so dark..."

He felt Edward’s smile  "Excuse me, where I am now everything is illuminated, but you're just at the beginning ... I'll make light for you"

Suddenly there was a blinding flash, then the brightness grew dim. A few minutes later Thomas was able again to open his eyes and look around. The darkness continued to wrap, but around him there was a light faint and warm, like of candles. Around him and Edward...

"... The scars are gone. And  is this the color of your eyes? They seem indigo… Amazing!"

"Yes, this is the color of my eyes" Edward smiled again. That, the wrinkling of his soft lips, was not changed at all. He approached Thomas, stroking his face tenderly while the other leaned confident, hungry for contact.

"Oh Thomas! But you're beautiful ...  I had never seen you before, I am sorry. Your  voice was warm and handsome but you are really beautiful ... Your hair is so shiny and silky, and your nose and mouth… You have a gorgeous mouth... Don't blush, please don't be ashamed of me..." He took him in his arms and kissed him. On the forehead, the temples, the mouth, cheeks, running his fingers through the hair, holding him tightly.

Thomas, who until then was frozen, felt a strong heat that radiated from the center of his body to the edges. A wonderful feeling of vitality and love. Timidly at the beginning, then boldly returned the kisses and caresses, clinging to Edward, enjoying that extraordinary feeling of peace that enveloped him completely.

He had not realized, but had started to cry.

"No Thomas, don't! Why? Be quiet, I'm here beside you."

"Oh Edward, you ... you ... You don’t know how it is out there for me. There is no place, nowhere. Whatever I do I'm always alone, so alone... I'm tired of just being alone, Edward. I never want to wake up, I want to stay here with you. Let me stay here with you!"

"You don’t  want to fight your corner anymore, Thomas? Are you sure?"

"Edward, you were right, I understand only now, you were right. I cannot win. The fight is useless"

Weeping turned into sobs that shook him like a twig.

Edward stood next to him, hugging and kissing until Thomas calmed down a bit "Everyone has a way Thomas, and must follow that way"

"I'm tired Edward, I'm so tired, you do not know how much ... This is the first real contact I have with someone for years ... And you aren’t real!"

Edward hugged him back. Be kept so tight was a wonderful feeling "I know Thomas, I was warned, we have been warned"

"We?"

A voice behind startled him.

"Yes Thomas, I'm here too"

"Mom? Mom!" Thomas broke away immediately from Edward, guilty "Mom, I'm sorry, it’s not what you think! We were... He was a patient of the hospital during the war…  I did not do anything wrong, I swear mom, I swear"

"Schhh, why do you apologize? Because Edward was a man? But what’s the meaning? What matters is what we have here" Two elegant and diaphanous hands touched him at the center of the chest, just a little left "And you're beautiful ... you see how beautiful my Thomas is, Edward? You see how strong, how bright is his light? "

Edward gave her a sweet smile "Yes Elisabeth, I've seen"

Thomas opened his arms wide, as if to ask permission to embrace her, and felt again that wonderful feeling of warmth in which he completely lost himself, happy.

Suddenly there was a change. Thomas felt as Edward and his mother slightly lose consistency "What happened?" In the complete silence that reigned until just before, Thomas became to ear noises at the beginning as muffled, then growing stronger. Screaming, confused shouting, hurried footsteps.

"Thomas, my boy, I am so happy to have seen you. We will be here, and next time it will be forever. But now you have to come back, they are calling"

"But no, how? No one, no one wants me, nobody. Please do not send me back, there's nothing for me there. Let me stay with you. Mom! Edward! "

"They are calling Thomas"

"Yes my boy, they are calling"

"No, please no, please no. NOOOOOO "

"Thomas, damn it, say sometihing, react. Thomas Please, please "

Andy had dragged him out of the car with the strongness of despair, putting him lying on the pavement in front of the garage. Now he was trying desperately to get him breathing, blowing air into the lungs. Molesley stopped him  "You must plug his nose while blowing air, or it can’t  work. Come on lad"

Andy did as he was told, while Bates turned off the car and Phyllis wrapped the body cold and cyanotic in a blanket. "Thomas, please, breathe, open your eyes dear" Phillis had taken his hand and caressed it tenderly while Andy, weary and tired, was still trying to push air into the lungs "Thomas, please ..."

Air, air, air. It was as if the lungs fail to take air, Thomas opened his mouth emitting a gasp and tried to breathe with all his might, coughing. Andy helped him to raise slightly, holding him. 

Thomas was confused, and sank back into Andy’s arms. The memory of Edward and his mother and their tenderness was still so vivid that it seemed almost normal to have Andy and Phillis holding him tight, wrapped in a blanket in the yard. Andy rocked him gently, wetting his cheek and neck with tears, unable to control himself, while Phyllis kept muttering "I'm sorry, so sorry, so sorry ..."

They stayed that way for several minutes, trying to make him feel better, when Carson emerged from the driveway, warned by one of the hallboys.

"What's going on here? What is this farce? "

Andy looked at him with hatred "Go away. Immediately "

That sight was like a bucket of icy water for Thomas. Although he felt very weak and could hardly breathe, pushed away Andy with a gesture that he wanted to be blunt, but turned weak and clumsy "Do not stand so close. I ... No one should be close to me"

"Thomas, just stop. Just stop it. They can think whatever they want. That I am straight, that I am skew. I don’t care anymore. The most important, the only important thing is that you're here"

"Get away Andrew! Barrow, enough of this ridiculous farce! If it is an attempt to not go away it isn't working"

Thomas began to cry. He thought he did not even have the strength, but after a moment he could no longer stop.

Andy tried to calm him rocking again.

"Edward ..."

"No Thomas, it's me. Andy. You had to tell me, you had to tell me that you have pushed me away just because you didn’t want to mess with me, you should have told before what you have written to me tonight. It would have been different. It could be different!"

"No, Andy. For me no"

"We will ensure that it will be different. You're here and I'm with you. We will find a way "

Carson leaned forward trying to grab Thomas’s arm but Andy stopped him "Do not you dare to touch him. Never! Now get out!"

"We'll talk tomorrow morning, brat! You will regret your attitude"

"We'll see who will have to repent and of what"

Andy waited some more, then when it seemed that Thomas was breathing almost regular, helped by Molesley took him to his room. There he fell asleep embracing Thomas, holding him tight in that ridiculous, awkward, tiny bed, stroking his hair and feeling finally at peace and quiet after a long time. 

Decisions had to be taken and things to be said, but they could think about it tomorrow.


End file.
